Audio signal processing has been widely used e.g. in industrial processes, such as process control and condition monitoring systems, and in audio systems, such as sound processing to process an audio signal. Audio signal processing has been also widely used in telecommunication.
In audio signal processing, e.g. sound processing, situations such as mixing and mastering, it is important to enhance certain characteristics of the sound. This is done for example in a music mixing situation to achieve better overall sound balance of the final mix and to improve separation of the sound components i.e. instruments in the final mix.
In a today's sound processing situation several processing tools are used to achieve the desired results. These tools comprise typically e.g. filtering, dynamic processing and sound effects. Filtering, also called equalization, changes the frequency response of the source. Dynamic processing modifies the dynamical properties of the source material comprising at least gate, compressor, limiter, and expander. Sound effects comprise processors such as distortion, chorus, delay, and flanger.
The above-mentioned today's sound processing tools are controlled via several user controllable parameters. In a typical sound processing situation the problem is that a vast number of parameters has to be set correctly by a user of the system to achieve the desired result. This makes the sound processing very time consuming and requires strong knowledge and experiment from a person using a sound processing device in order to achieve proper results.